


On your Marx, get set, Revolt.

by TayBartlett9000



Category: Sociology RPF, The Young Ones (TV 1982)
Genre: Emelia Sharpe (original character), Emile Durkheim - Freeform, Ewen Dickinson (original character), Functionalism, Gen, Humour, Karl Marx - Freeform, Lecture, Matthew (original character, classic social theory, classroom conversation, lecture taking place in 1982, marxism, personal discovery, sociology - Freeform, typical Rick., working class revolution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2017-03-16
Packaged: 2018-10-06 02:36:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10323674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TayBartlett9000/pseuds/TayBartlett9000
Summary: Rick has entered one of his sociology lectures. This time, the students are learning about classic social theory. Rick will  now learn about Marxism, and will discover his love of sociology and his longing for a revolution. A personal discovery for Rick.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I myself study sociology and the opinion that sociologists are ponsey upper class elitists is not my own. It was made up for narrative effect.

On your Marx, get set, Revolt.

By Taylor Bartlett.

 

Rick stepped into the large dingy lecture hall, making directly for a seat right at the back of the room as he usually did. All around him, students were taking their seats, pulling out books and papers and talking in quiet expectant mutters. Rick slammed his bag down on the floor and threw himself into the plastic chair, wondering what this lecture would bring. He glanced down at his watch and sighed heavily. It was far too bloody early to be up. Ten in the morning. It was inhuman to get people up this early in today’s day and age.  

He looked directly ahead of him, eyes fixed on the blackboard situated at the front of the room. Upon it, chalked in thick white lettering were the words “Functionalism and Marxism, analysis and evaluation of classic social theory.”  

Rick had a few moments to ponder quietly before the lecturer entered, professionalism shining brightly through every inch of his clothing and general dress sense. He had time to wonder briefly why he had even signed up to take sociology as a subject. Thus far, he had been given no reason to enjoy either the subject or the conversations about what society was and how one could define society. Rick had no interest in the definitions and frameworks of a society. He wondered whether it would be more productive to study something else, maybe history or politics. His father after all, had tried his best to force his young son into a political career. As usual, in the view that he knew it all, Rick had defied his father and signed up to a subject that he approved of not a bit.  

“Sociology’s for ponsey middle class elitists,” his dad had told him upon hearing the news of his son’s subject choices.

Sitting in the lecture hall at this moment, Rick was in secret agreement with his father on that one. Looking around him, he could see only ponsey middle class elitists among the gathered students. He had no concept of what a ponsey middle class elitist was of course.

A few moments later, the lecturer arrived, moving swiftly towards the blackboard and turning round to address his students. Rick looked up, willing to at least pretend that he was paying attention.

“Ok folks,” Ewen Dickinson said loudly, waiting for the quiet chatter to die down, “today we are discussing two major sociological figures who have made major contributions to our understanding of society.” He pointed at two words upon the blackboard that were written in bold. “Functionalism and Marxism are two major classic sociological theories and the people who have contributed to these theories are Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx.”

Beside Rick at the back of the room, a pretty girl with short dark hair and ice blue eyes, Emilia Sharpe,  sat up a  little straighter,  an intense look of concentration  on her face. Glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, Rick saw the young woman eyeing Ewen closely. He followed suit, making sure that the lecturer thought he was paying attention.

However, this intention to actually concentrate during the day’s lecture died quickly as Ewen began to prattle on once again. The spoken word became nothing more than the irritating wining in his ear, like a lot of parrots arguing. The note taking around him became nothing more than an even more irritating scraping sound, like finger nails down the blackboard of his brain. He didn’t feel his eye lids drooping. He was blissfully unaware of his body sinking lower and lower in his chair and he had no idea that the other students and Ewen were regarding him with scathing eyes.

Ewen smiled at Emilia. “Could you do me a favour and give him a nudge?” he asked quietly, pointing a disapproving finger at Rick, “he appears to have fallen asleep.”

Emelia complied instantly, and elbowed Rick hard in the ribs, causing him to sit up suddenly as if she had jabbed him hard in the eye  with a needle. He looked round in   surprise but was met with the stern gaze of Ewen Dickinson, staring down at him with a frown twisting his mouth.

“Glad you’ve finally joined us Mr Britain,” the lecturer said calmly, “so very, very good of you. Now, we have been talking about Emile Durkheim and his contributions to society, have we not?  Would you be so kind as to remind us of what we have been talking about for the past half hour or so?”

It is said that the opposite of noise is silence. The students in this lecture hall would have veamently disagreed with this theory, as silence would have been a terrible racket compared to the crushing weight of noiselesssness that struck every single one of them as Ewen finished speaking. Every one of them swivelled round in his or her chair to look meaninglfully  at Rick who was suddenly looking stunned, like a rabbit caught in a pair of headlights. He was at a complete loss for what to say. He had no idea what Emile Durkheim’s contributions to the understanding of society had been.

Ewen was quietly triumphant. “I thought so,” he said, still in that calm voice, “do you think you could enlighten him then please, Matthew?”

The young man whom Ewen had addressed now spoke up, in a voice similar to that of Denis Healey, the current depute leader of the Labour party. “Emile Durkheim created the concept of functionalism,” Matthew informed the room in general, “this is a theory that states that the institutions of society must work together in harmony to produce a fully functional society.” He said this last with a clever smirk upon his face, giving the rest of the assembled group the impression that he had eaten the textbook for breakfast that morning. “Functionalism,” he continued, “is a theory of consensus, with society working harmoniously like organs within the human body.”

Ewen smiled, glad that Matthew at least was paying attention. “That is correct,” he said brightly, now pointing to the second word written in bold. “We now move onto Marxism and the works of Karl Marx, and it would be nice if you had the decency to pay attention this time, Mr Britain.”  

Rick nodded, face flushed red with embarrassment.

Ewen turned back to face the room at large. “Karl Marx preferred to focus on the introduction of capitalism into modern society. Marx thoughts contradict Emile Durkheim’s theory of functionalism because he believed that society was inherently flawed and full of hidden conflict.”

Rick sat up a little straighter himself, determined to concentrate properly this time. He could still feel the eyes of thirty odd students staring him down.

“Karl Marx’s theories stem from the ideas of human   exploitation,” Ewen continued. “Marx was of the opinion that the upper classes who owned the means of production, people whom he called the Bourgeoisie were exploiting the lower working classes, people he called the proletariat.”

Rick shook his head in confusion. Those were two words that he was sure that he would never remember.  

“Karl Marx said in his book “The Communist Manifesto,” that the proletariat would eventually rise up and form a working class revolution against the upper classes. It is at that point that a proletarian revolution would take place and society would move from a system of capitalism into a system of socialism and then communism. Marx predicted that after the revolution of the proletariat, we would live in a society that was fare and equal, with everybody earning the same amount of money and nobody having more power or privilege than anyone else. Marx said “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

At the back of the dimly lit lecture hall, a change was slowly taking place inside the mental state of Rick Britain.

Ewen’s words were having a deep and profound effect on him. Rick was finally hearing something that he was interested in after weeks of boredom.  He had seen these things before with his own eyes. He had seen the exploitation of the upper classes towards the working class. His boss at the local shop was like that.  His boss owned the shop, so he thought that he had the god-given right to bully the workers about. Rick had often thought of causing an upraw of sorts himself but had never acted upon the idea. Now he was hearing that Karl Marx, a long-dead sociologist, thought that a working class revolution was not only acceptable, but necessary. ‘Fancy that’ he said to himself, ‘and dad thought that only the upper class elite were interested in sociology. Turns out that working class people have a place in the sociological world after all.’

He smiled to himself, his  mind full of images of his father’s face when he told him of the idea of a workers’ revolution. His father would faint. Rick though, was becoming keenly interested in the idea. He was now, for all intents and purposes, a Marxist.


End file.
